In Europe, a parent’s education level strongly predicts their child’s educational attainment. Children of highly educated parents are three times as likely as their peers with less-educated parents to achieve high levels of education themselves, note Senior Partner Tania Holt and coauthors. Children whose parents attended only primary or lower-secondary (middle) schools are 15 times more likely to drop out of school by age 16, decreasing the likelihood they can land high-income careers.
Image description:
A Sankey diagram shows the relationship between a European parent’s level of education and their child’s level of education. The diagram displays 3 parental education levels: highly educated (tertiary), medium-educated (upper secondary), and low-educated (primary/lower secondary). For each parental education level, the diagram shows the percentage of children who reach each of the 3 child education levels.
For highly educated parents, 75% of their children are also highly educated, 23% are medium-educated, and 2% are low-educated. For medium-educated parents, the distribution is: 40% highly educated children, 56% medium-educated children, and 4% low-educated children. Finally, for low-educated parents, the distribution among their children is: 25% highly educated, 45% medium-educated, and 30% low-educated. The diagram uses different shades of blue to visually represent the flow of percentages from parent's education level to child's education level.
Note: Figures may not sum to 100%, due to rounding. This image description was completed with the assistance of Writer, a gen AI tool.
Source: Eurostat Labour Force Survey (LFS) 2021, EU-27 (2020) countries and covers 34 European countries.
End of image description.
To read the report, see “Breaking the standstill: How social mobility can boost Europe’s economy,” March 27, 2025.